Exhibiting the Pride of Esopus

To Preserve, Interpret and Disseminate
the History of The Town of Esopus

The slow expansion of New Netherlands, however, caused conflicts with both English colonists and Native Americans in the region. In the 1630s, the new Director General Wouter van Twiller sent an expedition out from New Amsterdam up to the Connecticut River into lands claimed by English settlers. Faced with the prospect of armed conflict, Twiller was forced to back down and recall the expedition, losing any claims to the Connecticut Valley.

In the upper reaches of the Hudson Valley around Fort Orange, (present-day Albany) where the needs of the profitable fur trade required a careful policy of appeasement with the Iroquois Confederacy, the Dutch authorities maintained peace, but corruption and lax trading policies plagued the area. In the lower Hudson Valley, where more colonists were setting up small farms, Native Americans came to be viewed as obstacles to European settlement.

In the 1630s and early 1640s, the Dutch Director Generals carried on a brutal series of campaigns against the area's Native Americans, largely succeeding in crushing the strength of the "River Indians," but also managing to create a bitter atmosphere of tension and suspicion between European settlers and Native Americans. http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/kingston/colonization.htm

Aert Jacobsen Van Wagenen settles in Wagendal.

Settlers from Holland received "patents" from the Dutch rulers for land in Klyne Esopus and Kingston area.

The Dutch lost New Netherlands to the English during the Second Anglo- Dutch War in 1664 only a few years after the establishment of Wiltwyck. Along the West Coast of Africa, British charter companies clashed with the forces of the Dutch West India Company over rights to slaves, ivory, and gold in 1663. Less about slaves or ivory, the Anglo-Dutch Wars were actually more about who would be the dominant European naval power.

By 1664, both the Dutch and English were preparing for war, and King Charles of England granted his brother, James, Duke of York, vast American territories that included all of New Netherland. James immediately raised a small fleet and sent it to New Amsterdam. Director General Stuyvesant, without a fleet or any real army to defend the colony, was forced to surrender the colony to the English war fleet without a struggle.

In September of 1664, New York was born, effectively ending the Netherlands' direct involvement in North America, although in places like Kingston, the influences of Dutch architecture, planning, and folk life can still be quite clearly seen. http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/kingston/colonization.htm

Building starts on permanent homesteads using field stone found in abundance in Ulster County. Many of these early houses are still standing today. The Van Vliet Homestead at the corner of River Road and Broadway was built in 1767. The Van Aken Homestead near the where the train tracks cross Clay Road was build c1696. The Lowe (Louw) family built a house which was destroyed by fire in the early 19th Century. A newer homestead on Wildflower Drive running along Hussey Hill was built in 1840.

Willem Smit works for the Hardenburgs and builds a home on what today is Church Hill Road in Rifton. It is among the oldest houses in Esopus.

A stone house, built above what will become Elmore’s Landing on the Hudson River becomes an inn. During the American War for Independence British officers partied there prior to burning Kingston. The property was part of a patent owned by loyalist Thomas Jones. He was stripped of his land after the Revolutionary War. The stone house forms the center of Alton B. Parker’s Rosemont Mansion.

Esopus establishes a system of public school districts.

For more information about school districts see Chapter XVIII in The Town of Esopus 3000 BC to 1978 edited by Roger Mabie, et al.

The Klyne Esopus congregation builds the brick church which now houses the museum.

All slaves in New York State are freed. Sojourner Truth is free.

The Catholic Church of the Presentation opens in Port Ewen.

For more information about churches in Esopus see Chapter XVII in The Town of Esopus 3000 BC to 1978 edited by Roger Mabie, et al.

Judge Alton B. Parker accepts the nomination to be the Democratic presidential candidate to run against incumbent Theodore Roosevelt.

The Redemptorists, a Catholic order of priests and brothers begins to build a major seminary on the site of Robert Livingston Pell's mansion. They named the seminary Mount Saint Alphonsus in honor of their 18th century founder, St. Alphonsus Maria De Liguori.

Electricity produced at Central Hudson's hydro-electric plant in Rifton becomes available in the town.

First radios in Port Ewen owned by Charles W. Card.

The Port Ewen Water District opens a water purification plant drawing water from the Hudson River along River Road.

The town landfill is opened on Floyd Ackert Road in West Park.

The Port Ewen Sewer System is constructed.

The John Loughran Bridge is opened between Port Ewen and Downtown Kingston. It connects 9W to the Town of Ulster by way of the Frank Koenig Highway.